In various kinds of substrate processing apparatuses that are apt to be easily damaged by foreign matters, such as a production apparatus and an inspection apparatus of a semiconductor, a flat panel display, and a printed board, each transfer system and a substrate are transferred while they are brought into contact with each other. In this case, when foreign matters adhere to the substrate and the transfer systems, the subsequent substrates are contaminated one after another, so it is necessary to stop the apparatus periodically so as to clean the apparatus. As a result, there arise problems in that the operation rate of the processing apparatus decreases, and that a great amount of time and labor are required for cleaning the apparatus.
In order to solve such problems described above, a method of removing foreign matters adhering to a back surface of a substrate by transferring a plate-shaped member has been proposed (see Patent Document 1). According to the method, it is not necessary to stop a substrate processing apparatus so as to clean the member, and the problem of decrease in the operation rate of the processing apparatus is solved. However, according to this method, foreign matters cannot be removed sufficiently.
On the other hand, a method of removing foreign matters adhering to the processing apparatus by transferring a substrate with an adherent material adhering thereto in the substrate processing apparatus as a cleaning member has been proposed (see Patent Document 2). This method has not only the advantage of the method described in Patent Document 1, but also the excellent foreign matter removing performance. Therefore, this method solves the problem in that the operation rate of the processing apparatus decreases and the problem in that a great amount time and labor are required for cleaning the apparatus. However, according to the method described in Patent Document 2, the adherent material and the apparatus are bonded to each other too strongly in a contact portion, so they may not come away from each other. Consequently, there arise problems in that the substrate may not be transferred securely, and that a transfer apparatus may be damaged.
Recently, along with an increase in fineness of semiconductor devices, the adhesion of foreign matters to a wafer back surface as well as a wafer front surface becomes a problem. This is because the foreign matters transfer from the wafer back surface to the wafer front surface during a cleaning step, which decreases the production yield. At present, semiconductor elements with a wire width of 65 nm have started being mass-produced, and when a foreign matter of a size equal to or larger than the wire width adheres to a semiconductor element, a defect such as disconnection is likely to occur. In particular, a foreign matter having a particle diameter of about 0.1 to 2.0 μm is a problem. However, any of the related arts are insufficient for removing foreign matters having a predetermined particle diameter with especially high efficiency.    Patent Document 1: JP 11-87458 A (P.2 to P.3)    Patent Document 2: JP 10-154686 A (P.2 to P.4)